LOOKING BEYOND THE POLITICAL REALM
On my own website, www.NoneSoBlind.org, I have begun an effort to explore what I call the "spiritual" dimension of America in our times. In this, I am deliberately looking beyond the specifically political domain into other realms where, it seems, some aspects of the "spirit" of our times may be manifesting.
I am moving away from a focus on the political for a simple reason: I have come to believe, in recent months, that in the political realm America has reached a time of stagnation. It appears to me that the Bushites will continue their evil ways. The Democrats in Congress will be too weak and ineffectual to confront the regime in a meaningful and forceful way. The media will continue substantially to ignore one of the biggest and darkest stories in the history of the United States. And the American people --at least a majority of them-- will continue to more or less sleep through the greatest threat to our constitutional democracy since its founding.
As I will argue in a future posting, I believe that the weakness of the Democrats is best understood in spiritual terms--specifically as a result of liberal America's failure to tune into and connect to the spiritual level. As a result, the Democrats --as representatives of that part of America-- lack the fire it takes to confront a spiritual power: and the Bushite regime is powered by spirit, albeit by EVIL spirits.
So in the face of that stagnation, which I now expect will continue at least until there's a handover of power in the next election, I am looking at other realms of our society where --for better or for worse-- what I'm calling spiritual forces are or may be at work.
These forays begin with the OBSERVATION of something remarkable, and then turn to the question of what the phenomenon observed may say about the deeper workings of spirit in our nation.
THE ELUSIVE, BUT VITAL, NOTION OF "SPIRITUAL FORCES"
I cannot claim to be altogether clear myself about what I mean by spiritual, but I hope that the quest I am beginning here will bring some greater clarity.
I have touched upon the idea of a spiritual level on various occasions in my writings here over the past two years. The essay in which I developed it most fully was "The Concept of Evil" (at click here There I conceived the spiritual as involving vast, deep and abiding patterns that operate over time through human systems (cultures, societies, individuals).
Similarly, I entitled one of my earliest pieces here, "By Their Fruits—How the Pattern that Rulers Imprint on their Domain Reveals the Spirit that Animates Them." (See click here
Here are a few other examples of instances in my writings here on NSB where I've felt moved to draw upon the language of "spirit" to articulate my sense of the deep and vast forces at work:
Two years ago, in the opening overview to my website, NoneSoBlind, I wrote:
The darkness of the spirit that animates them is manifest in their ruthlessness and arrogance and dishonesty. They are not righteous, but rather they are serving as channels through which destructive –evil—forces are extending their domain.
Of Dick Cheney, I wrote:
The man has shown a life-long interest in being as close as possible to the summit of power. That, in itself, is no indictment of the man. But now, in the ugly picture of what he wanted to DO with that power, we can see the dark spirit that drives him.
And writing about the similarities and differences between our own time of crisis and that which brought America to Civil War, I said:
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